The sport of target shooting has become very popular in recent years. This sport has taken several forms, including the use of rifles, hand guns, air guns and the like. Furthermore, many overall competitions, such as modern pentathlon, include a section of target shooting of some sort. Obviously, accuracy is of prime importance in such competitions. Modern competitions have become so close that unaided aiming of a firearm may be insufficient.
While accuracy and precision are extremely important to target shooters, such considerations are also important to other applications, including but not limited to, hunting and military applications. Accordingly, while the present disclosure specifies target shooting, it is understood that it is equally applicable to other applications.
There have been many improvements to the standard firearm intended to increase the marksman's accuracy and ability to hit a target. The development of telescopic sights, also known as scopes, is one of the earliest improvements in this area. Scopes are used to improve viewing of the target such as via optical magnification, to determine where the projectile will land.
The way a firearm is held by the user can have an impact on the firearm accuracy which is far from insignificant. Side to side tilt of the firearm is one significant source of inaccuracy. This “tilt” is often referred to as “canting” of the firearm. Many hunters and marksmen rely on their inner sense of balance to ensure that the firearm is not canted. This attitude presupposes that the shooter has a fully functional, unimpaired sense of balance and that this sense of balance can somehow be translated over into the handling of the firearm.
Studies of airplane pilots reveal that the human sense of balance is easily confused by a number of influences and that the pilot should disregard his or her feelings and trust the plane's instruments. The human sense of balance is likewise subject to a number of disorienting influences including rifle recoil, the loud sounds associated with shooting, the repeated focusing on distant targets as viewed through one eye, and prolonged periods of standing. A hunter is subjected to even more disorienting influences, including the elements (heat, cold, wind, rain, etc.) and rough and uneven terrain. In addition, hunters may spend hours of hiking through rough and uneven terrain before firing a shot. The human sense of balance can be confused under such circumstances.
Many different kinds of sights have evolved to meet the demands of the market over the past few years with the recent trend being toward higher magnifications. Some scopes approach forty power magnification. Scope builders are challenged to provide a clear and bright image to the eye even at high magnifications. There is more light loss in the scope as magnification increases which results in a dimmer view of the target. Scope makers have made larger objective lenses in order to counter this loss of image brightness. The manufacturers have tended to design larger objective lenses which allow more light into the erector tube, ocular assemblies and, ultimately, the shooter's eye.
While accuracy of such larger scopes has increased, they have created problems. The objective diameter of the scope is so large that the scope must be mounted high off the barrel of the firearm in order to gain clearance between the barrel and the objective housing. At first blush this seems to be only a problem of mounting the scope. The large scope requires taller scope rings in order to mount the centerline of the scope high enough to obtain the necessary clearance. Practically, however, as the scope is mounted higher and higher from the central bore of the firearm, the sighting system becomes more sensitive to inaccuracies due to errors in repeatability. Therefore, various level indicators have been proposed to assist a shooter in maintaining the firearm level and correct one source of shooting error.
The ability of a shooter to maintain his head in an upright shooting position and simultaneously focus on both the aiming indicator and the target greatly affect the ability of the marksman to accurately hit a target. Furthermore, in target shooting, competitions have become so close that anything that detracts from the shooter's accuracy can be extremely detrimental. Windage, perspective, and even atmospheric aberrations must be accounted for by a skilled marksman. Stance, instability, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, eye strain and eye fatigue can adversely affect the marksman. The marksman must even control his breathing. In extremely skilled competitions, competitors are further concerned with the effects of their pulse on the accuracy and precision of their shooting.
To accurately account for all of these variables while still keeping the firearm locked on target, the shooter must be able to “compartmentalize” the variables. That is, he must maintain his primary concentration on the target while unconsciously accounting for the other factors. This is where his training and practice are important. Through training and practice, a marksman can learn to subconsciously adjust his stance, etc., while concentrating on the target. Anything that interferes with the shooter's single primary concentration on the target may be detrimental to his accuracy. Thus, it is most desirable to set up a firearm so the shooter can maintain his primary concentration on the target and shift all other factors to his secondary concentration. That is, the shooter's primary concentration will be a conscious concentration on the target while his secondary concentration will be a subconscious “awareness” of the other factors. In fact, the shooter may not even be consciously aware at all of some of the secondary concentration factors.
For purposes of this disclosure, the term “primary concentration” will refer to the concentration which the shooter is consciously aware of; whereas the term “secondary concentration” will refer to the more or less unconscious state of which the shooter may not even be aware. For example, the target will be a subject of the shooter's primary concentration while the shooter's balance will be a subject of the shooter's secondary concentration.
There have been several prior sighting systems that attempt to provide level indication on firearms in order to help the shooter hold the firearm level during use and to keep the same roll orientation during sighting in and during shooting to help avoid errors due to variables such as those discussed above. Some of these designs have included bubble levels that are placed in various locations such as on the receiver at the rear of the firearm, or in front of the sight. There are various different mounting schemes such as the use of clamps around a scope body or in front of an iron site and even bubble levels incorporated into the erector assembly inside the scope. All of these designs have been proposed in order to give the shooter an indication of when the firearm is level so repeatable impacts can be made at the target.
The level indicators mentioned above do not approach the above-mentioned division of concentrations and do not recognize that there is a difference between primary and secondary concentrations. Prior level indicators require a shift in visual focus and primary concentration to accomplish objectives other than simply sighting a target, such as leveling the firearm. Thus, these designs are not as successful as possible. As discussed above, in highly competitive shooting the shooter must concentrate on the alignment of the sighting system with the target and on nothing else. Distractions to this concentration such as moving the eye to a bubble level either inside the scope or out of the shooter's field of vision are extremely undesirable and cannot be done simultaneously with sighting the target. As discussed above, these distractions take the shooter's primary concentration away from the target and thus are undesirable.
Some sighting units provide information, such as leveling information, in addition to target sighting assistance. However, since these prior sighting units do not recognize that there is a difference between primary concentration and secondary concentration, these sighting units actually detract from the shooter's primary concentration when providing additional information because this additional information is presented in such a manner as to require the shooter to focus his primary concentration on that additional information. This somewhat vitiates or reduces, the advantages of the additional information. The user of a prior level indicator is required to consciously shift his primary concentration from one information providing element to another during the targeting process. The factors may change during the time it takes to shift primary concentration and the shooter will then be required to again consciously shift his concentration back to the first information providing element. While making these shifts, the shooter must still be subconsciously accounting for the other factors, such as stance, balance and the like.
Psychological studies have shown that a person is able to focus his primary concentration on only one thing at a time. These studies have shown that it can take as much as one full second to fully focus primary concentration on a second item after focusing the primary concentration on a first item. For example, these studies have thus found that cellular telephone use by an automobile driver can be dangerous because the person's primary concentration is not fully focused on his driving, and an accident can occur in the time it takes to shift his concentration from a conversation on the cellular telephone back to his driving. This analogy illustrates the inability of one to actively focus not only one's conscious visual activity but also his concentration on many inputs simultaneously. Therefore, there is a need for a firearm targeting device that can help a shooter accurately aim the firearm without interfering with his primary concentration.
Firearm targeting devices of the past, especially those using a bubble level, generally require the user to align two objects, such as the bubble and reference marks, or the target reticle and the bubble. Aligning two objects in this manner generally requires the user to focus his primary concentration on the objects being aligned. This requires a shift of primary concentration and has the above-discussed disadvantages. For this reason, any level indicator that requires the user to align two elements will require the user to change the focus of his primary concentration, no matter where the level indicating elements are located, thereby creating the above-discussed problems and disadvantages.
Furthermore, in many situations, a firearm does not need to be perfectly level, and sufficient accuracy and precision can be achieved with a firearm that is not as level as in other situations. For example, a tilt of several degrees may be acceptable in one situation, but not in another. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a firearm level indicator that permits the user to account for leveling tolerances without requiring the user to use his primary concentration to account for the tolerances. Therefore, there is a need for a firearm leveling system that can be utilized while maintaining primary concentration on lining up the sighting system with the target.
While scope type sighting systems have been discussed, it is noted that other sighting systems, such as iron sights, also are subject to the above-discussed leveling problems. Accordingly, the present disclosure is intended to include iron sights as well.